lilly's premed (mini-)blog

Will be watching eagerly, looking forward to the updates!

Will be watching eagerly, looking forward to the updates!

Hai I just wanted to give a little bit of advice - I understand that it might be difficult to come across work experience, especially as an international student no less, with fewer connections in the UK, but please don't do those med courses (such as premed projects or InvestIN) unless you absolutely haven't got anything to write about, you're effectively burning 10k (if you do the residences as well I think), and wasting 2 weeks of your life where the only really proper medical "experience" being watching some surgery live on a TV screen or something. Try and get some proper medical experience at your local NHS trust (most typically do), and try to perhaps contact your sixth form GP to see if they can get you some work experience.

IELTS is a pretty OK test, since unis don't really look at them beyond the requirements. Fortunately it is a test that can be retaken (albeit costing 200 pounds so keep that in mind), but as long as you can speak english with no grammatical errors, an iGCSE style of writing is sufficient for you to get 7-8s across the board. There's a decent site called IELTSbyLiz or something that gives you a more in depth insight into the test as well as some good example Qs, so feel free to use that.

Best of luck! And please please please if you are doing the UCAT in late August or something please remember to not do too much or you burn out! Hope this helps

Hai I just wanted to give a little bit of advice - I understand that it might be difficult to come across work experience, especially as an international student no less, with fewer connections in the UK, but please don't do those med courses (such as premed projects or InvestIN) unless you absolutely haven't got anything to write about, you're effectively burning 10k (if you do the residences as well I think), and wasting 2 weeks of your life where the only really proper medical "experience" being watching some surgery live on a TV screen or something. Try and get some proper medical experience at your local NHS trust (most typically do), and try to perhaps contact your sixth form GP to see if they can get you some work experience.

IELTS is a pretty OK test, since unis don't really look at them beyond the requirements. Fortunately it is a test that can be retaken (albeit costing 200 pounds so keep that in mind), but as long as you can speak english with no grammatical errors, an iGCSE style of writing is sufficient for you to get 7-8s across the board. There's a decent site called IELTSbyLiz or something that gives you a more in depth insight into the test as well as some good example Qs, so feel free to use that.

Best of luck! And please please please if you are doing the UCAT in late August or something please remember to not do too much or you burn out! Hope this helps

*PS if you feel like this is cluttering up your blog i can delete it if ya want me to

13/5/23 - completed IELTS prep today, must work on reading section, it's going to be the end of me lol. going to speed run through UCAT questions and then do one module of MOOC and let's see if I have enough time to watch another webinar tonight good luck with your exams/schoolwork everyone!!

ahh have you started ucat prep already? i feel like i want to start but i also feel like it’s too early for me

hiya! fellow international student here, good luck to you!!! how are you prepping for the UCAT? i'm going to start after my AS exams so that'll be a bit later but just curious haha. hope your end of year exams are going well

update 16/05/23: created my ucas, ucat and ielts accounts, going to complete the rest of bio assignment tomorrow! edit: forgot to add some things I did on Monday - completed chem assignment and studied bio (8hrs in total), completed AR section practice as well

hi everyone, how are y'all doing? here's a rather late update, life's been hectic lately T-T (27.06.23): completed AR section questions and IELTS (listening) prep, going to review flashcards for psychology as I have an assignment due, create a fact sheet for physics and create flashcards for bio! may add on more tasks later in the day. Read a medical news article about the increased infection rates of Lyme disease in the US as well this morning (stay safe everyone! make sure to act quickly if you do have an infection!!)

How's your UCAT prep coming along?

my scores are improving slowly but surely and I’m starting to solidify my exam technique and all that overall I’m quite happy with the progress!